How we transformed business operations and elevated customer satisfaction for Greg Rowe with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Introduction

GREG ROWE LIMITED is a designer and manufacturer of award-winning kitchen taps. Its 4-in-1 kitchen tap which dispenses not only hot and cold flows of water, filtered 100ºC boiling water, and filtered drinking water was the first mechanical 4-in-1 kitchen tap. In addition, also holding fully granted patents in the UK, USA, and China. The company manufactures its taps for a number of household brands, as well as for its own QETTLE brand, and its innovation has been recognised in the form of a prestigious Red Dot Design Award (2016) and a German Design Award (2018).

In recent years, the business has achieved significant growth; notably evolving from being an OEM supplier to an organisation with its own, consumer-facing brands. A disruptor in comparison to much of the KBB sector, GREG ROWE is determined to maximise the potential of its product innovation – exploring direct routes to market and an array of digital technologies to support and further its growth strategy.

The challenge

Originally acquired by the Rowe family over a decade ago, The FreshWater Filter Company was a specialist water filtration business with a strong online presence but with an out of date ERP/Finance system and a separate CRM solution.

After securing a supply and servicing agreement with a multi-national company, FreshWater changed its name to Greg Rowe and expanded rapidly with an increasing requirement to efficiently collect, store and manage lots of customer data in order to maintain the highest possible service levels. The fragmented legacy systems made this a 
labour intensive and therefore a costly and inefficient process.

They knew that they needed a solution which would give them an end-to-end unified view of the journey, a solution that would ‘enable us to integrate the processes of our business and operate more efficiently’, said Managing Director, Greg Rowe.

While searching for the right solution – and partner – their e-commerce business started to grow rapidly, collecting more and more customers each month needing customer relationship management and customer service. This increased pressure on the team as they were a small business and had no efficient or automated way of managing these processes; it was all done manually.

Addressing this issue became their main priority.

The solution

After months of research, Greg Rowe recognised that Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the right solution to their challenges and chose to work with Columbus due to proven expertise in the manufacturing sector.

Following the successful implementation of CRM, Greg Rowe immediately began to reap the rewards of their investment in a ‘futureproof system’, according to Director, Todd Rowe.

They saw an instant improvement in their resource challenges which in turn drove higher levels of efficiency in their customer service and increased customer satisfaction. The new system also contributed to a rise in recurring revenue, through the automation of previously manually created tasks e.g. reminder emails to customers each time a new water filter is required. With Columbus’ assistance, Greg Rowe rapidly developed their CRM platform to enable the automation of further manual tasks. They have continued to make great strides; with former areas of inefficiency so improved, that ‘CRM is now, ‘says Todd Rowe, ‘the centre of our world.’

This success gave them the breathing space needed to move their focus to upgrade their ERP system.

In June 2018, Greg Rowe went live on Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018 and soon after upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in the cloud. Todd Rowe said, ‘it was a big decision after go live to upgrade again, but we saw that this was the future and when looking at the Microsoft roadmap, we wanted to futureproof the business and plug everything together. We are now at the forefront of everything that Microsoft is doing – in the cloud, with analytics, etc. – which supports our huge growth plans’.

Greg Rowe added, ‘it’s exciting for us as we are setting the platform for our future’.

The benefits

Investing in both Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has transformed business operations for Greg Rowe, including:

• Total transparency of information and collaboration of all teams
  
• Customer cases and details can be seen across the organisation from customer service to research and development
  
• Management of customers is much more automated; there is minimal human intervention in the processing of e-commerce orders
  
• Reduction in manual tasks has allowed business growth to be achieved and has facilitated the redirection staff to more meaningful activities, in turn helping to improve employee satisfaction
  
• Access to real-time information has enabled more proactive and informed customer service, also boosting customer satisfaction and retention

‘It has finally given us full control, from the CRM level through to the recording of information into transactions at ERP level, joining up the whole circle’, said Greg Rowe.

Working with Columbus

Greg Rowe commented, ‘all the Columbus teams are extremely professional and efficient – we have worked together now for many years and we know how each other operates. We have a strong relationship built on trust which has enabled us to grow and move quickly’.

‘We have been consistently supported throughout the whole process and have had great project management and dedicated consultants who have become an extension of our team and we are excited to continue our journey with Microsoft and Columbus’, added Todd Rowe.